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Judge finalizing deal in Toyota acceleration cases

The Associated Press

Updated:
07/19/2013 07:22:35 PM EDT

SANTA ANA, Calif.—A California judge said Friday that he's finalizing a settlement worth more than $1 billion in cases where motorists say the value of their Toyota vehicles plunged after recalls over claims they unexpectedly accelerated.

U.S. District Judge James Selna said he was approving the deal that was announced in December and will affect 22 million consumers.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths. More than 14 million vehicles have been recalled since the claims surfaced.

Steve Berman, an attorney representing Toyota owners, has said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects, estimated to be in value of up to $1.6 billion. He added that those who sold their vehicles at a loss can receive anywhere from $125 to $10,000 depending on the level of depreciation.

"This is a great settlement for consumers," Berman said. "It includes both safety fixes to make Toyota vehicles safer, as well as monetary relief for owners who saw a reduction in their vehicle's value."

The company had previously said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement.

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"This agreement allows us to resolve a legacy legal issue in a way that provides significant value to our customers and demonstrates that they can depend on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," the automaker said in a statement.

The cases were consolidated before Selna in Orange County and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Toyota has settled a couple of wrongful death cases, and the first one to go to trial is scheduled to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom next week.

As part of the economic loss settlement, Toyota will offer cash payments from a pool of about $250 million to eligible customers who sold vehicles or turned in leased vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010.

The company will launch a $250 million program for 16 million current owners to provide supplemental warranty coverage for certain vehicle components, and it will retrofit about 3.2 million vehicles with a brake override system, which is designed to ensure a car will stop when the brakes are applied, even if the accelerator pedal is depressed.

The settlement also sets up additional driver education programs and funds new research into advanced safety technologies.

The main contention in the remaining wrongful death cases is whether a design defect—namely an electronic throttle control system—was responsible for Toyota vehicles surging unexpectedly.

Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in the automaker's source code that could cause problems.